A/N: When I started work on my other fic, Sith recommended I write a casefic just to get a feel for writing court scenes and solving mysteries and things. Of course, I already knew how to do that because I helped write a multi-casefic before, and I'm good at mysteries, so whether or not this was technically necessary, well, no. But still, I thought it'd be a good opportunity to flesh out an AU I came up with a while back!

Between this and Turnabout Blue Earth, I hope we won't become known as "those weird people who keep writing way-too-long AJ-era AU casefics".

July 23, 10:32 PM, Wright Talent Agency

Phoenix was a little afraid to find out why his twelve-year-old daughter was locked in the bathroom and calling for him. Nevertheless, he knocked on the door.

"Trucy? What's wrong?" he said. He hoped it wasn't anything serious; he was supposed to be at the Borscht Bowl Club about two minutes ago.

"Daddy, there's…" Trucy began - her voice was muffled by the door but Phoenix could hear the mixture of excitement and horror in it - "There's blood in my panties, Daddy!"

"What?" There was no way he heard that right.

"Not my magic panties, Daddy, the ones I wear," Trucy said, "I think I just got my first period!"

Okay. This was serious. "Are you sure?" Phoenix asked, knowing full well it was a dumb question.

"Yeah," Trucy said, "Daddy, what am I supposed to do? They didn't go over this in school."

"I… I don't know. Uh, let me call someone," Phoenix said, grabbing his phone and almost dropping it. The thought I'm too young for this crossed his mind.

"Who are you gonna call?" Good question.

"Give me a minute," Phoenix muttered. It wasn't like he knew anything about this sort of thing, nor did he know very many people who could explain it to either him or Trucy. Maybe Maya? Wait, that could work.

It took a couple of rings before someone picked up. "Hello," the person on the other end of the line said, "Mystic Maya is busy right now, so-"

"Pearls? Is that you?" Phoenix said, recognizing her voice.

"Mr. Nick?" Pearl said. "Why are you calling so late? Actually…" her inflection changed to anger, and Phoenix could just imagine her pushing up her sleeve, "why didn't you call before?"

"It hasn't been that long since I last - never mind. Can I talk to Maya?"

"Mystic Maya's busy right now," Pearl said again. "Maybe I can help you?"

Yeah, maybe she could. She was a bit older than Trucy, wasn't she? So maybe she'd already gone through this stuff. "I guess. Pearls, I need someone to, uh, well, Trucy got her first period and neither of us know what to do, so…"

There was a really long pause. Finally, Pearl said, "I'll go get Mystic Maya," and Phoenix was put on hold.

"How's it going, Daddy?" Trucy yelled through the bathroom door.

"Hang on," Phoenix yelled back. This was a disaster.

"Nick?" Maya's voice finally crackled over the phone line. "What's up? Pearly said something about you asking some really weird questions."

"Yeah," Phoenix said, "See, Trucy got her first period and neither of us know what's going on, so I kinda need someone to explain this sort of thing to her and tell her what to do. Because I don't know." And I'm not sure I want to, Phoenix added privately. Anything that would induce Pearl to interrupt Maya like that was probably bad news.

"Uh, I, uh, I'll try," Maya said, "Um, give Trucy the phone, I guess?"

Phoenix knocked on the bathroom door. "Aunt Maya wants to talk to you," he announced. Trucy opened the door a crack, grabbed the phone, and slammed it shut, locking it again.

A short time later, she cracked the door and handed Phoenix back the phone. "That was really useless, Daddy," she said, shutting the door yet again, "I think she was too embarrassed to talk about it over the phone. Also, Aunt Maya said to tell you that she said to stop drinking grape juice so much." Yeah, yeah.

"Sorry, Nick," Maya said.

"Wait, Maya-" Phoenix protested, but she hung up. I guess that rules out Mia, too, he thought. Great. Now what? How many other women did he know? Maggey Byrde? No, Trucy had never met her and there was no way Phoenix was going to have her explain this stuff to him so he could pass it onto Trucy. The less he knew, the better. Adrian Andrews, maybe? No, he could already see how that would go: badly. Ema Skye? Nah. Lotta Hart? …maybe Larry was right when he said Phoenix didn't know enough girls.

So who else could he call? Then it hit him: Franziska von Karma. Okay, that was pretty questionable idea at best, to be honest. But at the very least, he couldn't see Franziska of all people being too delicate to be useful. So he called her.

She picked up on the first ring. "What are you doing calling at this hour, Phoenix Wright?"

"It's only 10:40," Phoenix said, irritated, "and don't tell me you were asleep."

"What do you want?"

"Okay, well, you know my daughter, Trucy, right?"

"Of course I do," Franziska said, "what do you take me for?"

"That was more of a… conversational lead-in… anyway! Franziska von Karma! I need your help," Phoenix said quickly.

"Continue," Franziska said.

"Well, Trucy got her first period and neither of us know what to do, and I haven't been able to find someone to explain this stuff to her yet. So I was hoping you could do it…?"

There was silence at the other end of the line, and then Franziska said, "I will explain to her in person. Prepare for my arrival." And then she hung up.

Only now did it occur to Phoenix to call the Borscht Bowl Club and tell them he might be late.

Twenty minutes later, Franziska walked in unannounced, whipped Phoenix out of the way, and knocked on the bathroom door. She was holding a plastic grocery bag with some boxes in it. "Trucy Wright," she said, "I am here to help you. Please open the door." She then turned to Phoenix. "Go to your job. I will handle this."

Phoenix took one last look at Trucy as she opened the bathroom door yet again, nodded, and left. There was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that maybe Franziska wouldn't be the greatest of influences on young Trucy, but he ignored it. What could possibly go wrong?

Three Years Later

March 13, 3:00 PM, Los Angeles International Airport

Ever since that night, Trucy had grown close to Aunt Franziska, apparently adopting her as some sort of mother/older sister figure. This proved convenient for Phoenix, for the most part, since he never had to give his daughter The Talk, for example, but on the other hand, for about a week every month Phoenix because Trucy and Franziska's whipping boy. Literally, in the latter case. He wondered how much money he had spent on chocolate bars, and if he would ever regain his dignity. But in general, things had worked out well. Or so he thought.

"What."

That was really the only thing Phoenix could say. This had to be a bad joke. There was no way he had returned from a trip overseas with Edgeworth to find a shiny new prosecutor's badge pinned to the white band on Trucy's top hat.

"Hi, Daddy!" Trucy said, bouncing on the balls of her feet, "I see you noticed my badge!"

"Huh?" Phoenix honestly didn't know how to react. Was this real?

"I passed the bar exam!" Trucy said cheerfully, tipping her hat to make the badge more visible.

"Huh? Huh?"

"Are you surprised, Phoenix Wright?" Franziska, who had been watching Trucy while Phoenix was overseas, and had accompanied Trucy to airport to pick up Phoenix and Edgeworth, said, "Do not be. Your daughter is a very intelligent girl, and she studied under me. Of course she would be a prodigy."

"Huh? Huh? Huh?"

"Didn't you know about this?" Edgeworth said, amused.

"No! No, I didn't!" Phoenix said, staring at Trucy. "Why… why a prosecutor, of all things?"

"I'm not just a prosecutor, Daddy," Trucy said before either Edgeworth or Franziska could make "and just what do you mean by that" comments, "I'm a magician prosecutor! Look," she added, producing a piece of paper out of thin air, "pretend it's an autopsy report."

"Uh… very nice," Phoenix said. What had Franziska done?

"Miles Edgeworth," Franziska said, "when will Trucy Wright's debut be?"

Edgeworth rolled his eyes. "How am I supposed to know?" He unsuccessfully dodged a whip, and Phoenix wondered how Franziska had been able to get past airport security with that thing. "This is the first I've heard about her passing the bar exam. I'll be sure to assign her to a suitable case once one comes up."

"I can't wait!" Trucy said, bouncing again. The fact that Edgeworth was Trucy's boss now made Phoenix kind of uncomfortable.

"By the way, Trucy," Edgeworth said, jabbing his finger in her general direction, "don't display your badge like that. It's tacky."

"Daddy always displayed his badge back when he was a lawyer," Trucy said, pouting, with hands on her hips.

"He was a defense attorney," Edgeworth said, "and you are a prosecutor."

"So?"

Phoenix, trying very hard to remain calm, left the now-bickering Edgeworth and Trucy, and Franziska, who was either mediating or provoking them, to go get their bags. This was going to be a very long day. Possibly a very long year.

March 16, 7:44 AM, Wright Talent Agency

It was far too early and the phone was ringing far too loudly for Phoenix. What did he do to deserve this? Groaning, he picked up the phone. "Hello," he croaked. Maybe he should lay off the grape juice….

"Daddy! Guess what!" Trucy shouted. Phoenix held the phone a good twelve inches away from his ear. "Guess!"

"What?"

"You're no fun," Trucy said, back to a more tolerable volume. "Anyway, I'm going to be debuting today! You should come and watch!"

Phoenix sat up in bed. "What? You are?"

"Yeah! Uncle Edgeworth just assigned me! It looks like we have a really solid case, too. I think I'm gonna win!"

"The important thing is to find the truth," Phoenix pointed out.

"Yeah, I know," Trucy replied, "but I'm pretty sure that the defendant really did kill the guy."

"Oh, it's a murder?" Phoenix said. He should probably go get some coffee, but sitting up was bad enough. "What a great way to start your career."

"Yeah," Trucy said, "we have an eye-witness and everything!"

"Don't forget, it's usually the simple cases that have the most snags," Phoenix yawned. "So, when's the trial?"

"10:00!" Trucy said cheerfully. "Courtroom number three!"

"I'll be there," Phoenix promised. "Go review your case, I'll see you later. I love you."

"I love you too, Daddy," Trucy said, and she hung up. Phoenix laid back down. He had almost two hours to bring himself to get dressed and bike over to the courthouse. He could handle that. What he wasn't so sure was how he would handle the courthouse itself. It seemed like such a long time since he'd been there… almost seven years now.

This was probably going to be the most difficult day of his life, and not just because his baby was growing up.

March 16, 9:57 AM, District Court, Prosecutor's Lobby #3

Trial started in three minutes and Trucy, who was currently receiving last-minute tips from both Franziska and Edgeworth, had yet to see her father. Maybe he was already in the gallery? Or maybe Uncle Edgeworth is right and he's too hungover to show up on time, Trucy thought. She rarely concerned herself with Phoenix's grape juice problem, but this was her debut trial! Where was he?

"Do not worry about Phoenix Wright," Franziska said. "If he is late, he shall taste my whip."

"Okay," said Trucy. She didn't really approve of Franziska whipping Phoenix so much, but it was just what Franziska did. And he probably deserved it, especially if he was going to be late for his daughter's first trial, apparently.

Or apparently not. Phoenix ran in just as Franziska and Trucy finished talking. "Heya," he said, slightly out of breath.

"Hi, Daddy," Trucy said.

"Took you long enough," muttered Edgeworth, checking his watch.

"Uh… traffic?" Phoenix said, putting his hand behind his head.

"You ride a bike," Edgeworth said, glaring at him.

"Stop bickering," Franziska said, brandishing her whip.

Fortunately the bailiff showed up before the scene descended into chaos. "Miss Wright, trial is about to begin."

"Showtime!" Trucy said, skipping towards the door. The three adults wished her luck.

"I think I'm going to cry," she heard Phoenix say as she left, "Edgeworth, hold me."

"Don't touch me."

March 16, 10:00 AM, District Court, Courtroom #3

"Court is now in session for the trial of Mr. Robert Rebor," the Judge said.

"The prosecution is ready, your Honor," Trucy said. She was nervous, but she knew she wasn't alone: Franziska was sitting in the gallery right behind her and, judging by the whispered argument, so were Edgeworth and her father.

"The defense is ready, your Honor," the sallow, balding man in a green suit at the defense stand said.

The Judge nodded. "I see we have a very young new prosecutor," he said, looking at Trucy.

"Yes, your Honor," Trucy said, "I just got my badge last week!"

"Ha!" the defense said, "A rookie! Don't worry, little girl, I'll go easy on you. That's a promise from Diesen Payne!"

What kind of name is that, thought Trucy. Also, didn't this guy have brothers at the prosecutorial office?

"Very well," said the Judge, "Miss Wright. Your opening statement, please."

Time to give them the ol' razzle-dazzle! Trucy thought. She nodded. "On the night of March 15th, at around 11:00, Mr. Rebor was witnessed adding a suspicious substance to the coffee cup later used by Mr. Adam Mada. Additionally, a container with traces of arsenic - the poison that killed Mr. Mada - was found in Mr. Rebor's car, and had partial fingerprints on them that belonged to Mr. Rebor." She produced both the arsenic container and Mada's autopsy report out of thin air and submitted them to the court as evidence.

"I see," said the Judge, "Any questions so far, Mr. Payne?"

"No," said Payne.

"Very well. Miss Wright, you may call your first witness to the stand now," the Judge said helpfully.

"Okay," said Trucy, "the prosecution calls Lisa Basil to the stand!"

A blue-haired woman wearing a blue suit with flashing lights on it took the stand.

"Witness, name and occupation, please," Trucy said.

"My name is Lisa Basil," the witness said, "I am the head of Blue Screens, Inc., a computer programming firm."

"And both Mr. Mada and Mr. Rebor are employees of yours, correct?" Trucy said.

"That is correct," Basil replied, holding her hand up.

"Witness, please testify about what you saw Mr. Rebor doing to Mr. Mada's coffee cup," Trucy said.

Basil cleared her throat. "At approximately 11:06 on the night of April 15th, the only employees at the firm were myself, Mr. Rebor, and the late Mr. Mada; everyone else had gone home. It was at this time that Mr. Rebor volunteered to go get some more coffee; I declined, but I did happen to glance over at the employee recreation area, where we keep the coffee machine. As I did so, I saw Mr. Rebor adding some sort of powder to the red coffee cup, which Mr. Mada typically used. Ten minutes after delivering Mr. Mada's coffee to him, Mr. Rebor suddenly said he needed to go home and left."

The Judge nodded. "Mr. Payne, you may begin your cross-examination." Trucy wondered what he was going to do. In her opinion, Basil's testimony was pretty solid.

"Witness," Payne said, playing with his hair, "When exactly did Mada die?"

"That didn't happen until shortly after Mr. Rebor had left," Basil said, and then added, "It was quite gruesome." Trucy found it just a little bit disturbing, the way she maintained her calm, friendly demeanor even though she was talking about the murder of a long-time employee.

"Did Mada not drink his coffee until then?" Payne said.

"No, he drank some before Mr. Rebor left," Basil said, "It was somewhat late, so he was understandably tired."

Payne smirked. "It seems to me as though the poison wasn't added to the coffee until after Rebor had left!"

"Objection!" yelled Trucy - oh, wow, her first objection! - "Mr. Payne, you should probably read the autopsy report again. Mr. Mada's death was the result of long-term exposure to arsenic! The exact time that Mr. Mada actually died was really more a coincidence than anything else. It just so happened that the night of April 15th was the night that Mr. Mada could survive no more!"

Payne jumped back. "Impossible!" he said.

"Yes," said Basil, her lights blinking slowly, "I'm afraid that Mr. Mada's health had deteriorated in the months before his death."

"How sad," commented the Judge.

"Well - did Rebor usually prepare Mada's coffee?" Payne demanded.

"He did," Basil said, "at the time I thought he was merely exhibiting good teamwork skills."

"I can see why you would think that," noted the Judge, "Why, the bailiff usually makes my coffee for me, and naturally no one would think he was trying to kill me!" He then glanced at the bailiff like he wasn't sure about that last comment.

Payne paused, and then changed his line of attack. "Witness," he said, "did Rebor give a reason as to why he needed to go home?"

"He said there was a family emergency," Basil explained.

"However," Trucy interjected, "Mr. Rebor's only family is his estranged wife, who never saw him that night." She pulled Mrs. Rebor's statement out of her magic panties and submitted it to the court.

Payne jumped back again, then started flipping through the court record. Almost got him! Trucy thought triumphantly, and then reminded herself that Payne had yet to fall into the trap she had laid.

"Miss Wright," Payne said, looking up from the court record and smirking, "it seems you've missed a fatal contradiction in the witness' testimony."

"I have?" said Trucy, smiling cheerfully.

"Yes," said Payne, playing with his hair, "Ms. Basil has clearly stated that she saw Rebor put the powder in Mada's red mug. Why, then, is the mug in the crime scene photos green?"

The crowd burst into discussion and Basil began sweating as the lights on her suit flickered faster. Trucy merely started bouncing on her heels. "That's no contradiction," she said cheerfully, "because that's not the mug that was poisoned."

"Whaaaaaaaaat?" yelled Payne as the Judge banged his gavel a few times to silence the court.

"The red cup with the traces of arsenic in it was found in Mr. Rebor's car along with the arsenic container," Trucy explained, pulling the red coffee cup out of nowhere and submitting it as evidence, "so. Witness, is it true that Mr. Rebor was the one who usually used the green cup?"

"Yes," said Basil, "every member of our firm uses a different color coffee cup. It makes it easier to keep track of who's supposed to wash which one."

"Therefore, Mr. Rebor must have switched his cup - which showed no traces of arsenic, by the way - with Mr. Mada's before leaving," Trucy said, extending her hand, fingers splayed, "presumably to direct suspicion away from the coffee."

"W-Well, can we really be sure that the powder the witness saw my client adding to Mada's coffee was actually, in fact, arsenic? What if it was sugar?" Payne said, backpedaling.

"Mr. Mada liked his coffee black," Basil said.

"The coffee dregs in the red mug contained no sugar, or even milk or cream," Trucy said, "it was definitely plain black coffee… except for the arsenic, anyway."

"But the fingerprints!" Payne said suddenly, sweating, "The fingerprints recovered from the container were only partial! They must have been planted!"

"Objection!" Trucy said, having fun now. "The reason why they were partial prints is because someone had tried to wipe them!"

"Objection! How did you get the prints if they were wiped? Your Honor, the prosecution is clearly forging-" Payne began.

"Objection!" Trucy interrupted him, "he clearly didn't do a very good job of wiping the prints! And keep your wild accusations to yourself!"

The Judge nodded. "Objection sustained," he said, "and Mr. Payne, I expect better of you. Please don't accuse Miss Wright of forging evidence unless you have some way to prove it. Persist, and I'm afraid I'll have to assign you a penalty."

Payne screeched. How rude, Trucy thought, irritated, I bet he's only saying that because Daddy was caught in that evidence-forging scandal. Doesn't he know that Daddy was set up? It's so obvious! But now was not the time to get into that.

"T-The motive!" Payne shrieked, "The prosecution has yet to provide a motive for Rebor to kill Mada!"

"That's simple," said Trucy, "didn't you look at Mrs. Rebor's statement?" She read it out loud to the court: "'I haven't seen Robert since I left him for Adam three years ago, and that includes the night of the 15th.' - clearly, Mr. Rebor resented Mr. Mada for stealing his wife."

Payne jumped back. "No!" he yelled, "Nooooooo! You're wrong!"

Trucy smiled at him. "Do you have any evidence that proves that?" she asked.

"Uh, I, er…" Payne said, and then presented something random. The Judge gave him a penalty.

"Your Honor, I think it's clear who the real killer is," Trucy said.

"I agree," said the Judge, "Any objections, Mr. Payne?"

"I… I… um…" Payne said, sweating, "N-No, your Honor."

"Very well," said the Judge, "This court finds the defendant, Robert Rebor… GUILTY."

The crowd cheered and confetti fell as Payne screamed, apparently in anger at being defeated by a fifteen-year-old girl. Rebor was lead off in handcuffs. "This court is adjourned," the Judge said, banging his gavel.

March 16, 10:43 AM, District Court, Prosecutor's Lobby #3

"Great job, huh, Daddy?" Trucy said, bouncing.

"Yeah, great job!" Phoenix exclaimed, pulling her into one of those spinning hugs where Trucy's feet left the ground and her cape smacked the nearest person in the face (which in this case was Edgeworth).

"You did that on purpose," Edgeworth muttered. Everyone ignored him.

"Yes, Trucy Wright, excellent job. This is only the beginning of your winning streak. Appreciate it," Franziska said.

"I don't care about a winning streak," Trucy said, hands on her hips, "all that matters is finding the truth."

"Good girl," said Phoenix.

"Hmph," said Franziska.

"But I did a good job of finding the truth, right, Uncle Edgeworth?" Trucy said.

"Of course you did," said Edgeworth, adjusting his glasses. "I'm very proud of you."

Grinning, Trucy turned to Phoenix. "Okay, let's go get some noodles!" She turned to Franziska and Edgeworth. "You two should come too!" Phoenix made a "my poor wallet" expression, and Trucy decided not to tell him until later that she intended on paying for it.

"It's a little early for lunch," said Edgeworth, "and I have work to do, so I'll-" Franziska whipped him. "Fine, fine. Let's go." And so they went.

April 17, 3:01 AM, Wright Talent Agency

Things had been busy for Trucy lately. Her first month as a prosecutor had gone well, although one of the detectives seriously couldn't believe she answered to Mr. Wright's daughter sometimes. And her winning streak had grown into an actual streak, meaning that she had had two more cases since her debut. At the same time, she had to reduce her shows at the Wonder Bar from every night to a couple times a week if she wasn't currently assigned to a case, which sucked because Trucy missed the bar's mascot/freeloading stray/pet cat Bullets, whom she sometimes used in her show and usually was the only one who remembered to feed him.

But other than that, everything was good. Or at least it was until the doorbell rang in the middle of the night.

Sleepy and somewhat irritated, she stumbled to the front door - which she always kept locked when Phoenix was out all night on the poker circuit - and looked through the peephole. Edgeworth was standing out there, and he looked like he had come over in a rush - he was still wearing his pajamas and his hair stuck up kind of weird, although he was wearing an overcoat. Trucy opened the door. "What's up, Uncle Edgeworth?" she yawned. "Daddy isn't here right now-"

"Wright's been arrested," Edgeworth said abruptly. Trucy froze up.

"…w-what?"

"Something happened at the restaurant where he plays poker," Edgeworth said, starting over, "and your father's being detained on suspicion of murder. Don't worry," he added quickly, catching Trucy's expression of horror, "he's already hired a defense attorney, and as far as I can tell, no one can really believe he'd do something like that."

"Oh… okay," said Trucy. She'd heard stories about how Phoenix had been accused of murder twice before, and both times came out totally fine. "Is he at-"

"-the detention center, yes, but you can't visit him yet," Edgeworth said, "No one's been assigned to the case yet, so right now you're just an ordinary family member." He adjusted his glasses. "Wright called me and asked me to keep an eye on you until… after the trial."

Trucy nodded absently. "Does that mean I'll be staying at your house?"

"The trial should be in a few days," Edgeworth said, then added, "I'm sure he'll get a 'not guilty' verdict."

Trucy nodded again, silently took Edgeworth's hand, and let him lead her back to his car. It was raining.

June 15, 10:29 AM, Los Angeles

Just as Edgeworth predicted, Phoenix was declared not guilty without a hitch, or rather with only one hitch, which everyone except for the short, angry defense attorney elected to ignore. When Phoenix had handed Trucy that ace of spades, she thought about the way Diesen Payne had tried to accuse her of forging evidence back in her debut trial, but she chose to give her father the benefit of the doubt. That way, it was only concealing evidence, not forging it, and either way he wasn't technically a lawyer, so what was the worst that could happen? Also, Trucy had chosen to not mention this incident to Edgeworth. As far as she knew, he hadn't heard of where exactly the card had come from in the first place.

However, the short, angry defense attorney had returned despite swearing not to. Trucy had decided to enlist his help in finding her panties. She figured he might as well, since Phoenix had asked him to find the man who hit him with a car (which landed him in the hospital, where Trucy pretended to not notice his "mineral water"), and then Eldoon asked him to find his noodle stand. However, for the sake of Apollo's rapidly-thinning patience, Trucy decided to accompany him… which actually seemed to wear on him even more, especially when Trucy decided that Little Plum Kitaki wasn't actually as scary as everyone seemed to think she was.

They decided, after a fashion, to search the park, which was currently closed off with police tape. Even if they were there on completely unrelated issues, Trucy saw no problem with just waltzing in on the grounds that she was a prosecutor, so crime scenes weren't off-limits to her.

"That is a blatant abuse of power," Apollo muttered.

While they were there, they ran into the detective, Ema Skye, who refused to talk to them, saying, "I know you're not assigned to this case, Trucy, and I have no idea who this kid is," at which point she wandered off, eating snacks. Trucy could easily imagine Edgeworth recommending she threaten to cut Ema's salary, but that probably wouldn't accomplish anything. Except for maybe eliciting more whining about how Trucy got "preferential treatment" from Mr. Edgeworth all the time.

However, there had been a murder, and both Apollo and Trucy kind of wanted to know more about it - Trucy hadn't heard about it yet because she got the day off due to her father being sent to the hospital - and Trucy was too impatient to ask whoever was heading up the investigation what happened when she got back to work. Besides, this was right around the corner from the newly-renamed Wright Anything Agency! She had a right to know!

Therefore… she needed to get Apollo into Ema's good books. Shouldn't be too hard. They just needed to prove that Apollo had some sort of connection to Phoenix, and then Ema would be a lot nicer (actually, that was too strong a word. More tolerant). Phoenix's proposed way to do this was to bring her some fingerprinting powder that Ema had given him nine years ago. Judging by the fact that he kept referring to it as "white powder", and Apollo's reaction overall, Trucy figured that Phoenix was playing some sort of joke on Apollo, which Trucy decided not to ruin.

Hopefully Apollo wouldn't report the Wrights for cocaine possession before he found out what it actually was.

On the way back to the park, they ran into one of Trucy's co-workers, Klavier Gavin. He was the one in charge of the murder case at People Park, and also immediately made it some sort of life's goal to irritate Apollo. He also didn't really bother questioning why Trucy had earlier let Apollo wander around the crime scene on her authority, considering neither of them had anything to do with the case.

"You could've just told me that Mr. Wright sent you," Ema said once Apollo had presented her with the fingerprint powder.

"I tried to," Apollo said. "You weren't listening to me."

"Neither of you are related to the case," Ema said, munching on her Snackoos. "And Trucy, I seriously thought you were going to do something more… entertaining with your day off. Why don't you go watch a movie or something?"

"I'm helping Polly with his investigation," Trucy said cheerfully.

"Of what?" Ema said. Clearly not this.

"I'm supposed to… find some things," Apollo said, "like the car that hit Mr. Wright… or that," he added, pointing at the noodle stand.

"Ah," Ema said, "okay. But that doesn't explain why you feel it's necessary to butt in on the glimmerous fop's case."

"We're not butting in," Apollo protested at the same time Trucy said "Professional curiosity!" by way of explanation.

"…right," Ema said. "Well, you two might as well make yourselves useful." And the two of them spent the next half hour helping Ema with her forensic things that Trucy always wondered why she was allowed to get away with them. There was a reason she wasn't a forensics officer.

An hour later, they were back at the crime scene, this time with an official reason to be there: Apollo's defense of the suspect, Wocky Kitaki.

"I don't get it," said Ema, once Apollo had mentioned that he'd gotten a job actually relating to his profession, "why are you helping him, Trucy?"

"I'm not assigned to this case," Trucy pointed out, "and it's still my day off. I can do whatever I want."

Ema stared at her for a while, then said, "I hope you're not planning on being his co-counsel, at least. Mr. Edgeworth might let you get away with everything, but there's probably a line there."

Apollo rolled his eyes. "I don't need a co-counsel," he said.

"There's nothing wrong with co-counsels," Ema snapped, "it's just that it's really, really weird to have a prosecutor as one."

"Well, I wasn't really planning on it," Trucy said, which was partially a lie. She was invested now.

"Good," said Ema and Apollo at the same time. Rude, thought Trucy. Co-counsel position was out, but she still wanted to see how this would turn out. Speaking of seeing… she should probably go over that thing with Apollo. The thing with the power that her dad mentioned. (Sometimes she wondered how he knew this stuff.)

April 16, 10:00 AM, District Court, Courtroom #2

Trucy was in the gallery just behind the defense. She wasn't entirely sure that Apollo knew she was right there, either. He would need her help sooner or later, Trucy was sure - especially since he had completely ignored her attempts to explain his "perceive" thing to him and flat-out rejected her offers to let him practice it on Phoenix (Trucy knew all sorts of fun topics that made Phoenix tense up, although she had yet to catch all of his tells and was sort of looking for help on that front, anyway).

Fortunately for Apollo, he had everything completely under control, despite the fact that Klavier had started calling him "Herr Forehead" and also Wocky Kitaki was probably the worst client ever and seemed to have a crazy guilty verdict-wish. Trucy had prosecuted someone like that before, and that trial was an even quicker win than her debut one. Poor Polly, she thought. But other than that, he was doing well. At least until the first witness was called.

Wesley Stickler was very a tense man, apparently. And Apollo was a very oblivious one. Trucy hit him in the head with three balled-up pieces of paper before he finally picked one up and read it.

"Use your power, you dummy," it said, "see how he keeps fiddling with his book? He's lying!" Apollo glanced back up at Trucy, clearly confused. Trucy scribbled "YOUR BRACELET" on another piece of paper and threw that at him, too.

"I see you've captured the heart of Fräulein Wright, Herr Forehead," Klavier said, leaning forward.

"Ignore her," Apollo said, "just let me continue the cross-examination, your Honor." Fortunately for his case, Apollo actually listened to Trucy this time around and was able to continue taking apart Stickler's testimony, which dealt the prosecution a major blow, even if no one had any explanation for Stickler's actions until Trucy threw a "He's the one who took my panties!" message at Apollo. After that, it was simply a matter of the Judge suspending court and ordering both sides to further investigate.

June 16, 2:23 PM, Wright Anything Agency

"What a trainwreck that was," Apollo said grumpily.

"You're welcome," Trucy replied, bouncing. It was at this point that Alita Tiala, the one who had hired Apollo in the first place, walked in and thanked Apollo for his hard work, keeping Wocky from getting the guilty verdict for at least another day.

After she left, Apollo adjusted his tie and sighed. "Well," he said, "time to set out and continue the investigation."

"I'll go with you," volunteered Trucy, and they set off to the detention center, and Eldoon's house, and the Kitakis' house, and back to the detention center again, and back to People Park….

At some point they returned to Hickfield Clinic, where Apollo had suddenly come up with all sorts of questions to ask Phoenix, who didn't really answer anything directly, except for mentioning that Klavier was the prosecutor at the trial that ended in his disbarrment seven years ago.

"Really?" Trucy said. She wasn't aware of this.

"You didn't know?" Phoenix replied.

"I'm surprised you let her work with him," Apollo said, eyebrows raised suspiciously.

"You say that like I had anything to do with Trucy becoming a prosecutor," Phoenix said dismissively. "Besides, it's not like I'm mad at Rock-boy there anyway. I'm not the type to hold grudges."

"Klavier's very nice, too," Trucy added cheerfully, "like a prince." She frowned. "I wish someone had told me, though."

"I thought you would have remembered," Phoenix said.

"Remembered?" Apollo said.

Phoenix nodded. "Trucy was there at the trial, but that's a story for another time, isn't it?"

Trucy nodded too, racking her brain. She had only been eight seven years ago… he wasn't talking about her biological Daddy's trial, was he? Come to think of it…. "Yeah. But I guess that explains why Uncle Edgeworth's so mean to Klavier."

"Mean?" Phoenix said, raising an eyebrow.

"That's not really the right word," Trucy said, and stuck out her tongue. "What I mean is, I've kind of noticed that Uncle Edgeworth keeps assigning him to really weak cases, or cases that require a lot of investigation, like he doesn't want him to be in the prosecutorial offices all day. He also doesn't mind when Klavier goes off touring with his band."

Phoenix laughed. "That's Edgeworth for you. He never believed for a second that I actually did forge that piece of evidence."

"Did you?" asked Apollo.

Phoenix was silent for a moment and then said, "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. It doesn't really matter now, does it?"

"B-But…!" Apollo started, but Phoenix cut him off.

"I'm not an attorney anymore," he said, "that's the only truth you need to know. Edgeworth and Klavier Gavin can both think what they want." He looked at Trucy. "Me, I have more important things to concern myself with." After that cryptic-remark-turned-sweet, he didn't seem to want to talk anymore. Apollo and Trucy set back off on their investigation, and neither Phoenix nor Apollo seemed to notice that Trucy had shoved all of Phoenix's "mineral water" into her magic panties before leaving.

The most exciting parts of the rest of the day mostly consisted of almost walking in on a robbery, Apollo stealing some evidence (Trucy was too preoccupied with the thought of her biological father's trial to stop him), and finding out from Eldoon that Apollo's client was dying. After that, there wasn't much else to do, so Apollo and Trucy went their separate ways, with Apollo heading back to his apartment (which he shared with a friend, apparently) and Trucy heading back to Hickfield Clinic, where Edgeworth was going to pick her up. Phoenix didn't want her to stay home alone for more than a day at a time anyway, and the recent murder in the area probably didn't help. While Trucy was waiting, Phoenix mentioned that he was interested in seeing how Apollo did at the trial tomorrow.

"You could always come with me to watch," Trucy said.

Phoenix rubbed his chin. "I would have thought that you'd go back to work tomorrow."

Trucy shrugged. "As long as you're still technically in the hospital, I get time off."

"Technically?" Phoenix laughed, "I'm not technically in the hospital if I'm watching a trial, you know."

"Yeah," Trucy said, "I guess a better way to phrase it would be… as long as Uncle Edgeworth thinks you should still be in the hospital, I get time off."

"He knows as well as you do how sturdy I am," Phoenix joked. "He wouldn't be surprised to find that I checked myself out after two days."

"That's why you don't tell him you're out until after the trial," Trucy suggested.

"Yeah, and shut off my cell phone during the trial," Phoenix said, then added, "You know he'll be mad at you for lying."

"It's not technically lying," Trucy protested, "especially since you're the one not telling him, not me. I have nothing to do with this," she said innocently, then added, "Besides, Uncle Edgeworth pretty much never gets mad at me."

"Unless it's about the badge?"

"Unless it's about the badge." Trucy giggled. It had been three months since she'd first gotten it, and she still displayed it on the band of her hat, no matter how much Edgeworth (and occasionally Franziska) insisted that prosecutors were supposed to keep their badges in their pockets.

"Ema texted me to whine about how Edgeworth lets you get away with anything earlier," Phoenix said.

"I think she just thinks it's weird that I'm helping Polly with his investigation," Trucy said.

"Why are you doing that anyway?"

"Well, at first I was trying to help find my magic panties, but then we came across the murder, and my professional curiosity kind of took over."

"Please don't tell me you were his co-counsel."

Trucy pouted. "Why does everyone keep saying that?"

"It's really weird for a prosecutor to be at the defense stand," Phoenix said, "trust me on this."

There was a knock on the (open) door and Edgeworth walked into the room. "Speak of the devil," Phoenix laughed. Trucy didn't get it.

June 17, 10:10 AM, District Court, Courtroom #2 Gallery

Apollo was on a roll. Alita Tiala was called to the stand, and both Trucy and Phoenix quickly agreed that she was most likely the real killer. Phoenix commented that she reminded him of his ex-girlfriend from college, "Well, sort of, it got pretty complicated towards the end," and Trucy made a note to herself to go over some of the old case files lying around the office sometime.

"Gotcha!" Apollo yelled, catching Tiala in a lie.

"Wow," Trucy said, "did you see that, Daddy?"

"I usually don't," Phoenix said, "What did she do?"

"I don't know, I couldn't even see it!"

Phoenix leaned over slightly, looking intently at the witness stand. "We are a little further away than Apollo is."

"I think Polly's just really good at this," Trucy said, shrugging.

"It must be the bracelet," Phoenix said.

"If you say so, Daddy."

Not long afterwards, recess was declared to run some tests on that bullet that Apollo had previously stolen from the crime scene. For a minute, Trucy thought Phoenix would reprimand her for letting him do that, but then she remembered that Franziska had once mentioned that Phoenix used to do that sort of thing all the time. Apparently it was only bad if prosecutors did it.

Thirty minutes of tense waiting later, and Apollo had the case in the bag for about thirty seconds until Wocky Kitaki took the stand, confessed, and subsequently had his heart crushed into tiny, tiny pieces.

"See," said Phoenix, "that's the kind of reaction you want to get from a boy who wants to date you."

"What?" said Trucy. Not this again, she thought.

"As in, turn him down," Phoenix said, "No dates."

Seriously? thought Trucy. Not that it was a big issue right now, but why did he have to be like this?

Fortunately for Apollo, Wocky's "confession" was pretty much completely ignored and Apollo's attack on Tiala continued, this time with the Judge backing him up. There was a moment where Trucy worried that Tiala was going to get away, but Klavier stepped in. If I ever get a proper rival, Trucy resolved, I'd help them in court, too! As it turned out, Trucy was a bigger help than she anticipated: her magic panties were the final blow to to Tiala's presumed innocence. Tiala was arrested (Good, Trucy thought. She hadn't appreciated her slight against Wright Anything Agency) and Wocky was declared not guilty.

"I would have thought that he'd've removed your panties from the court record," muttered Phoenix.

"Yeah, I need them back," Trucy said, "they hold things a lot better than my bag does. I mean, I still have the grape juice you snuck into the clinic in there."

Phoenix stared at her. "So that's where…"

Trucy rolled her eyes. "Mineral water is clear, Daddy. Not purple."

June 17, 4:12 PM, District Court, Defendant's Lobby #2

Trucy and Phoenix watched silently as Apollo dealt with a very angry client and attempted to diffuse the tension between said client and his father.

"What is this kid's problem?" Phoenix mumbled under his breath. Trucy was kind of glad she was the only one who heard him.

"His father's really nice, though," Trucy commented as Wocky ran out of the room.

"And now Apollo's involved with the mafia," Phoenix joked.

Trucy elbowed him. "Didn't you hear him? Mr. Kitaki's opening a pie shop!"

"A former mafia family," Phoenix amended his joke.

"Well, let's head back, Polly!" Trucy said, walking over to him. "To Wright Anything Agency!"

"Since when do I work for your agency?" Apollo snapped.

"Aw, we make a good team!" Trucy said, tipping her hat. Apollo rolled his eyes.

"You didn't really do anything," Apollo retorted. Trucy threw a rolled-up ball of paper at him.

"…fine," Apollo said, throwing a glare at Phoenix, "but only because I have some unanswered questions."

"Alright! Let's go claim our reward from Mr. Eldoon!" Trucy said, grabbing both Apollo's and Phoenix's arms and marching them out to the 3rd floor lobby. They were met by Edgeworth, arms crossed and glare steely and dangerous-looking.

"Wright," he said, and his voice was like ice, "I thought you were still in the hospital."

"Ah ha ha," Phoenix said, sweating, "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"Isn't that the chief prose-" Apollo began, but he was cut off when Trucy caught Phoenix's "Run for your life!" gesture and dragged Apollo out the door as fast as she could. "Trucy, just what is going on?"

"It's a bad idea to stick around when Uncle Edgeworth gets really angry like that," Trucy said cheerfully, "hopefully Daddy can get him to calm down…"

"Yeah," Apollo said, his expression plainly reading Just what am I getting myself into? "Hopefully."

June 17, 6:03 PM, Wright Anything Agency

At least Trucy got her day off. As far as Phoenix was concerned, that was the only good thing that came out of this. The only other things that came out of this were Edgeworth yelling at him for almost half an hour before finally agreeing to give Phoenix a ride back to WAA due to the fact that Trucy had taken the bike already. This turned out to be a terrible mistake because Edgeworth was still angry and now they were stuck in traffic so he took the opportunity to continue lecturing Phoenix, which eventually turned into listing off every single grievance that had been racked up in the decade since they had come back into each other's lives, and by the time they made it Phoenix's part of town, Edgeworth had started nagging him about his grape juice consumption.

"I can quit any time I want," Phoenix grumbled, defending himself for the first time since they had left the courthouse. This only earned him a smack upside the head.

Which resulted in Phoenix flopping straight down on the couch as soon as he got inside. All in all, not a great day.

"Hi, Daddy," Trucy said, "traffic?"

"Yeah," Phoenix groaned.

"You didn't grab anything to eat, did you?" Trucy said, "I already had some noodles, so I didn't make anything for dinner."

"It's fine," Phoenix said.

There was a pause. "How mad was Uncle Edgeworth?" Trucy said.

"Really mad," Phoenix replied, touching the back of his head where Edgeworth had hit him. It didn't really hurt, but he was a little concerned for his hair, even if no one ever saw it under the beanie anymore.

"He's right about the grape juice, you know," Trucy said suddenly, pinning him with one of her really intense serious stares.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Phoenix said.

"I can see you biting your lip, you know," Trucy said, "I know Uncle Edgeworth told you to stop drinking."

"I can stop any time I like!" Phoenix protested. Trucy wouldn't smack him for saying that, at least.

Trucy rolled her eyes. "You say that every time, Daddy."

This is only the prologue, so the actual case doesn't start until the next chapter. In the meantime, yes, I did feel as though you all needed to see how Apollo's first two cases would (or wouldn't) change if Trucy was a prosecutor.